BREAKING: Peter Durant Steamrolls to Victory in State Senate Special Election

Isn't it nice to finally start winning without Jim Jones Lyons?

Senator-elect Peter Durant (R-Spencer) declared victory Tuesday night. (Photo credit: Katie Lannon/GBH)

Republicans declared victory Tuesday night in a special election for the Massachusetts State Senate, proving MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale has the winning formula to get Republicans elected. It feels cathartic just to write that, as we’re sure it does to read.

The election was a major test for Carnevale, who flew in strategists from the Republican National Committee to oversee the election in its final weeks. Dozens of volunteers came out of the woodwork to support Durant, and the anticipation among grassroots GOPers was palpable leading up to tonight. Now, finally, we can begin to see the fruits of our labor, rather than laboring under the weight of Jim Jones Lyons spending our money on lawsuits and private investigators.

As one reporter noted, the victory will not make a difference to the Senate’s supermajority makeup of Democrats, but it shows MassGOP donors that Carnevale is a serious change of pace from the past four dismal years of loss after loss.

In the Republican primary, Durant defeated Lyons-backed Bruce Chester who relied on an endorsement from Geoff Diehl that probably did him more harm than good. Speaking of Diehl, he spent his remaining political capital pennies on trying to oust Taunton’s Republican Mayor Shaunna O’Connell in tonight’s elections only to watch her handily defeat Ed Correira, her former chief of staff who even rallied with Diehl on the Taunton Green. Like a skunk at a garden party, Diehl managed to scare away hundreds of voters who stuck by Mayor O’Connell.

Diehl threw in for Chester over Durant in the Republican Senate primary.

Here was Geoff Diehl again last month, burning every last ounce of self-respect as he stumped for Taunton Mayor Shaunna O’Connell’s opponent.

Between failures at the ballot box and Jim Jones’s ongoing legal entanglements, it’s not hard to see why the Kool-Aid is starting to lose its flavor. Sources say Jim and Geoff are struggling to hold their coalition of Republican State Committee candidates together as the losses mount, with the main excuse being that State Committee has become too toxic in personal, political, and legal meanings of the word. Most recently, Chester himself told Jim Jones that he no longer plans to run for State Committee, choosing instead to keep his reputation intact for another run for state representative.

With Durant’s race out of the way, the MassGOP’s entire attention will now turn to these intra-party elections on March 5th, 2024. Friday is the deadline for candidates to submit their signature papers to local town clerks, so we’ll soon know how many Kool-Aid cult members are still around.